Research Groups

CSD researchers collaborate extensively within and without the Division, blurring the lines between the research groups described below. Each group makes important contributions to CSD's primary research themes of Climate Change, Air Quality and the Ozone Layer. This strong overlap of interests and productivity helps create the vibrant, robust atmospheric research environment for which the Chemical Sciences Division is widely known.

This group studies processes important to climate, air quality, and precipitation. We measure the chemical, physical, and optical properties of aerosol particles in the field and laboratory to better understand the sources, sinks, and radiative properties of these particles. Researchers in our group make aircraft measurements of cloud droplets and use diverse, innovative modeling techniques to understand the physical and radiative properties of clouds.

This research team uses land, ship, and aircraft-based optical systems to study processes of importance to air quality, climate, aviation, weather forecasting, wind energy, and marine ecosystems. Our capabilities and interests include the development and deployment of state-of-the art lidar and spectroscopic instrumentation, and the interpretation of data obtained with these systems.

This group conducts research to improve forecasts of regional air quality, including particulate matter and ozone, and to improve understanding of the free tropospheric ozone budget. We use the WRF-Chem chemical transport model to develop and evaluate state-of-the-art innovative ways of describing and forecasting the emission, transport, and chemical evolution of pollutants in the atmosphere.

With precision laboratory work, this research group targets trace gases, aerosols and atmospheric chemical processes affecting air quality, ozone depletion, and climate change. We characterize the lifetimes and photochemical processing of trace species, and evaluate their impact.

Researchers in this group improve understanding of the atmospheric processes that underlie air quality and the influence that these processes have on climate. We develop and field deploy state-of-the-art instruments capable of measuring important atmospheric gas species from ultra-trace levels to the extremely high concentrations found at emission sources. We collaborate widely to draw on diverse techniques – from laboratory to modeling studies – to explore atmospheric processes influencing air quality and climate.

This group provides integrated analysis and modeling that addresses chemistry and climate processes spanning the troposphere and stratosphere. We advance the scientific building blocks that underlie science and policy, and we provide scientific leadership to improve understanding and directly assist public policy. Our group collaborates widely, with colleagues at NOAA and academia to those in international research organizations.